ANTI-CORRUPTION OR ANTI CONGRESS?
Averthanus L. D’Souza.
The present writer is neither a spokesperson for nor even a sympathizer
of the present political party which goes under the name of the Congress Party.
It is a matter of history that the party which currently masquerades as the
Congress Party is not the original Congress which was nurtured by stalwarts
like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Vallabbhai Patel, Maulana
Abul Kalam Azad, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and others. That Party was not only
truncated by ideological differences among rival factions, it was even
disconnected from its original ethical moorings by powerful individuals who
steered the party in directions which were antithetical to its original
orientations.
Evolution, at least in political terms, ensures that ideologies change
and get confused. Many ideologies which, at one time were held to be sacred,
have disappeared from the political spectrum. National Socialism (Nazism),
Fascism, Marxist Socialism and other variations of socialism have long passed
into oblivion. So it is no surprise that parties like the Indian National
Congress have become distorted by forces which are often beyond their control.
It is therefore necessary to bear in mind that we are dealing with present
political realities and not tilting at ghostly windmills in a Quixotic world of
imaginary giants.
Corruption in the corridors of power, maladministration in the
bureaucracy and rampant graft at the lowest levels of public service have
become so pervasive that the common man has lost patience with the entire
system of governance. Being ignorant of the mechanisms of governance and the
systems which drive the wheels of administration, the common man can only have
recourse to a display of his frustration in the form of protest gatherings and
slogan shouting in public areas. When frustration reaches a critical level it
only takes a spark to set the tinder on fire. Like a forest fire, a carelessly
thrown match-stick or a cigarette butt can cause a conflagration which defies
human efforts to douse it. Such is the case of the recent mass ‘uprising’ of
the citizens of India against corruption. It needed very little persuasion to
bring the masses out into the streets. They were not influenced by any of the
rhetoric of the so-called ‘leaders’ of the anti-corruption movement; neither
were they particularly enamoured by the erudite explanations of the legal
luminaries who crafted the Jan Lokpal Bill. The people simply rallied around
the impulse of a movement which promised to rid them of corruption in public
services. How this was to be achieved and the intricacies of the instruments
to be deployed were of little or no concern to the “Common Man.”
This is where our astute politicians, specially of the far right, saw the
opportunity of exploiting this concern of the Common Man to achieve their
objective of bringing about the downfall of the government in power. For a
long time they have attempted to seize political control by using the methods
provided by the Constitution of India. They have never really accepted the
premises on which the Constitution of India has been based. In fact they have
prepared their own version of a Constitution which will radically alter the
nature of the Indian State. Even a cursory acquaintance with the writings of
their “founding fathers” will reveal that they are committed to abrogating the
present Constitution of India and replacing it with their own version. Every
detail has been carefully worked out – even to the extent of changing the name
of “India” to “Bharat.” Given the opportunity, they will establish a
theocratic State in which minorities will have no rights but will be permitted
to exist only by sufferance by the majority.
It is important to understand this fundamental ideological perspective
in order to make any sense of what is happening in the context of the so-called
movement against corruption. The final objective is not to remove corruption
from the system, because they themselves have benefitted immensely from the
system which permits corruption; rather their objective is to overthrow the
government by means which are extra-constitutional and undemocratic. The
popular resentment against corruption has come as a handy tool with which to
bring down a duly elected government. The strident calls for the Prime
Minister and his Cabinet of Ministers to step down is clear evidence of the
real intentions of the forces behind the anti-corruption movement. The very
real problem of corruption has become a useful smoke-screen from behind which
to topple the government. In effect this is a dangerous enterprise because
not only will it bring down the government, but it will also bring down the
very edifice on which the governance of this country has been built. The
Constitution of India has made provisions for a system of checks and balances
vis-à-vis the three arms of the government. Because of extenuating
circumstances and the undue influence of extraneous forces the delicate balance
is often threatened – as is the case at the present time. Instead of seeking
to restore the balance, and the proper functioning of each of the wings of the
government, the so-called leaders of the anti-corruption movement are seeking
to destroy the very system of governance as laid down by the Constitution.
A critical study of the Jan Lokpal Bill reveals that the “movement”
seeks to replace the existing system with a newly concocted Leviathan which
will render the entire government redundant. The Lokpal as envisaged by them
will not only subject the Prime Minister and his Cabinet to the superintendence
of this Leviathan, it will also make the Members of Parliament accountable to
itself, rather than to the citizens who elected them. Of course, this is
sought to be justified on the ground that this coterie of five or six “leaders”
represents the whole of Civil Society. They have often enough declared that
they are the real “representatives” of the people and have pointed out to the
huge crowds gathered at the Ramlila grounds and other public places in the
country. One cannot also ignore the preposterous claim made by Kiran Bedi
that “Anna is India and India is Anna.” (Shades of Indira Gandhi). In
effect, the conflict is between the people of India as “represented” by Anna
Hazare and the people of India as “represented” by their duly elected
representatives in Parliament. The Lokpal (or rather the Jan Lokpal) seeks to
subjugate Parliament to its jurisdiction. Likewise the entire Judicial system
as envisaged in the Constitution of India is sought to be made subservient to
the Jan Lokpal which is sought to be created by the three or four legal
luminaries in the “Team Anna.”
The insidious danger to the stability of this country is also evident
in the declaration made by Anna Hazare in his celebratory remarks at the
Ramlila grounds – that he will “remake” India. He declared that India has been
destroyed by the government in power, and that he has made it his mission to
reconstruct India according to his own image and likeness. He has declared
that he is spearheading a “second freedom movement.”
For those who have eyes to see and ears to hear it is clear that Anna
Hazare and those whom he represents are on a mission to destroy India as it has
been created by the Coinstitution of India and to remodel it according to their
own vision of what India should be. We should not be deceived by the oft
repeated declarations that they will act only within the ambit of the existing
Constitution. This is a ploy which has been used by every dictator in history.
They have used the guise of democracy to destroy democracy. In fact, even
after coming to power these dictators have continued to describe their
countries as “democratic republics.”
Averthanus L. D’Souza,
D-13, La Marvel Colony,
Dona Paula, Goa 403 004.
Tel: (0832) 245 3628.
e-mail: [email protected]
